The 1924-D Lincoln Cent: A Semi-Key Date With Collecting Challenges

PCGS - The Lincoln Cent series offers a variety of challenges, from the first scarce issues of 1909 on up through the coveted "Omega" cents of 2025. In between are some pretty challenging issues, especially among the mint-marked early dates from the 1910s and 1920s. One of these is the 1924-D, a tough date that is widely regarded as a semi-key issue. The 1924-D Lincoln Cent saw a mintage of only 2,520,000, making it the fifth-lowest mintage among the regular issue, non-proof entries in the Lincoln Wheat cent subtype.

Check out 1924-D Lincoln Wheat Cents on ebay

The 1924-D Lincoln Cent is a scarcity in any grade and rare in the Mint State grades

The mintage of 2.5 million may seem fairly robust, but in actuality very few Lincoln cents ever saw production runs amounting to fewer than 5 million coins. Even in the 1920s, the Lincoln Cent routinely saw mintages of well over 10 or 20 million. Additionally, collectors of the 1920s who were pursuing contemporary U.S. coins of the period tended to focus their efforts on Philadelphia strikes. This meant that the lower-mintage Denver and San Francisco emissions generally were forgotten by most collectors of the day, entering circulation and seeing heavy use before being worn to oblivion.

Collectors didn't begin to pay much attention to the branch-mint issues until the late 1930s and early 1940s, when the first so-called "Penny Boards" were offered to the public. By then, the branch-mint Lincoln Cents of the 1910s and 1920s were becoming exceptionally scarce in circulation. Those still existing in better Mint State grades had proven rare.

And that's the case with the 1924-D Lincoln Cent, which is worth about $25 in G4 and fetches prices of nearly $50 in F12. The coin garners $100 in XF40 and takes $325 in MS60BN. From there, the prices skyrocket, with MS63BN examples retailing for $800. As the collector traipses into mid-Mint State territory, prices venture into four figures. A specimen in MS64RB can set the collector back by $1,400, while in MS65RD the coin goes for about $14,000. The record price for the 1924-D Lincoln Cent was set in 2006 when an MS65RD example sold for $19,550.

Check out 1924-D Lincoln Wheat Cents on ebay

Check out Books on Lincoln Wheat Cents on Amazon